Enough is enough: are we to live?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” – Margaret Mead.

On January 28, 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali properly used the word ‘Pakistan’ for the first time – in his pamphlet titled ‘Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?’ I have wondered how he would have titled another pamphlet if he had to write one on the eve of 77th birthday of Pakistan.

Look back over seven decades – the loss of half of the country, four martial laws, no democratically elected prime minister being able to complete his/her full term, continued political turbulence with brief illusions of stability.

Think about the present – complete political chaos, reemerged terrorism with daily loss of life, nationalist movements, debt-ridden economy with chronic structural defects, people splintering under inflation, growing poverty (more than 100 million people in poverty now) and the lowest human development indicators (more than 26 million children out of school and 40 per cent stunted).

Attempt to look into the future – and there is poor visibility. There is growing hopelessness among people, especially the youth, and no sense of realization and urgency among the top leadership of all mainstream political parties. All of them have been in power in recent years and the country has continued to deteriorate in every sense of the word.

What prompted me to think of the ‘Now or Never’ pamphlet is the desperate sentiment Choudhary Sb felt in using such strong language as “are we to live or perish forever”. For contemporary Pakistan, I think he would change the first part of the title and keep the second part as such and call it ‘Enough is Enough; Are We to Live or Perish Forever’.

In the spirit of August, evergreen, fresh and passionate, Pakistan has to be reimagined. A brutally honest introspection is in order. We cannot continue like this. Things have come to a head. The national life we are living is no life. This is not the country for which our leaders fought so hard on a singular point: we, the Muslims, as a minority among Hindus feel that in a post-colonial Subcontinent we will not be treated fairly and hence we need a separate country where we can independently lead the life the way we want to.

A very high human cost was paid in this struggle – one million people lost their lives and around 20 million lost their homes as the world saw the largest migration in human history with never-ending tales of suffering. The enlightened father of the nation however made it crystal clear on the eve of the creation of Pakistan that “you may belong to any religion, caste or creed; that has nothing to do with the business of the state” and that “we are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens of one state”.

Where do we stand today? Everything in our beloved Pakistan is going wrong. Politics, justice, economy, security, social services, foreign relations, minorities, and above all the constitution – the mother contract between the people and the state which when it is breached, the cracks go deep and, and we breach it every day, but enough is enough.

Reimagining Pakistan is no more a choice; it is a necessity, a national responsibility, and a survival strategy – for ourselves, our youth and our future generations.

The history of nations shows that in the face of adversity there are always some individuals who decide to roll up their sleeves, shed-off their personal interests, transcend their cocoons of pride, prejudice and privilege and start joining hands with the like-minded; and the snowball starts swelling.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail and Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and some others just did the same. They showed moral courage. They left their archaic, dynastic and power-at-all-costs parties and started reimagining Pakistan.

A new political party, Awaam Pakistan was launched on July 6; the party has introduced its vision document on August 11, 2024. A fundamental reason to launch a new party of a new kind is that the country needs a political response to its ills. Countries need fundamental reform and this requires credible and competent people.

One of our contemporary tragedies is that due to their experience, the people of Pakistan have stopped imagining the possibility of a political party without the support of the establishment. The question that immediately comes to mind on hearing about a new political party is: establishment?

On the contrary, the leadership of Awaam Pakistan believes that a political party should stand on its own feet rather than riding on the shoulders of any institution. And that all institutions need to work within their constitutional remit, otherwise there is no future of democracy in the country; without which Pakistan cannot move forward.

Pakistan needs a new political party in the spirit of ‘enough is enough’. A party – in fact, a political institution – that the people of Pakistan have not experienced before. A party that is truly democratic and transparent in its decisions – including those involving its financing base – and in which hereditary politics has no place, where all party offices are time-bound, and where young party members from any social class have equal opportunity to rise in the ranks.

A party focused on economic and human development as two sides of the same coin rather than waiting for the trickle down that never trickles down, and which prioritizes youth and women development.

While introducing the vision of the party three days ago, Miftah Ismail introduced seven non-compromising guiding principles which will provide a solid foundation for the reform agenda it has introduced for all important sectors in Pakistan: supremacy of the constitution and rule of law; establishment of a permanent Truth Commission in order to move beyond our past wounds; redefining politics as a public service; accepting our human resource as our greatest resource and investing in it as a highest priority; within human resource the highest priority would be the most vulnerable; ‘we are all citizens, and equal citizens of one state’ with equal rights and freedoms; and that local government is the best government to serve the people.

In the spirit of August, let us collectively say: enough is enough, we are to live and create a khushaal Pakistan that works for all of its citizens – this is a means to an end, and an end in itself.

The writer is a former health minister. He is currently a professor at Shifa Tameer-i-Millat University and also a founding member of Awaam Pakistan. He can be reached at: zedefar@gmail.com